A large baler with an arrangement for taking up agricultural cereal crop lying on the ground is known from DE 37 19 845 A1. This large baler is provided with a conveying channel with an intermediate conveyor that is equipped with drivers. Each driver of the intermediate conveyor is associated with one knife of a plurality of knives carried by a knife shaft of a cutting arrangement. The knife shaft conveys the harvested crop as an overshot conveyor, while the intermediate conveyor rotates in the opposite direction to the knife shaft and is arranged at an angle above it.
A large round baler with a crop take-up arrangement arranged underneath a baling chamber and a knife shaft conveying as an overshot conveyor is known from WO 92/09191. Between the crop take-up rotor and the knife shaft, an intermediate pulley is arranged that is supported in bearings, free to rotate, and driven by the flow of the crop, in order to support trouble-free conveying of the crop.
Furthermore, a large round baler with a take-up rotor as an overshot conveyor and a knife shaft as an undershot conveyor is known from DE 43 08 646 A1. Between the shafts of the crop take-up rotor and the knife shaft, driven in opposite directions, a further rotor is provided that is driven by the flow of the crop to assure a trouble-free flow of the crop. The further rotor rotates in the opposite direction from the take-up rotor and in the same direction as the knife shaft.
Finally, a baler for agricultural cereal crops is described in DE 198 06 630 A1. This baler is provided with a take-up rotor arranged in the direction of the flow of the crop ahead of a baling chamber that is followed by a reducing arrangement that consists of an overshot conveying rotor in the form of a knife shaft functioning as a cutting rotor, shear bars and strippers. Located between the take-up rotor and the cutting rotor, is a transverse screw conveyor that concentrates the cereal crop to the width of the rotor or the baling channel, with the screw conveyor being arranged and equipped with lines, and which operates as an undershot conveyor, that transfers the harvested crop to the overshot cutting rotor.
The balers described above have the common disadvantage that no reliable crop flow can be guaranteed with the known arrangements for the conveying of harvested crop between the take-up rotor and baling chamber.
The problem underlying the invention is seen in the need to guarantee a reliable crop conveying that is free of jams to or in a baling chamber of a large round baler.